Kennebunk trash

and recycling vote

On Feb. 11, the voters of Kennebunk will be asked to decide whether to make a dramatic, 30-year change to the way we handle trash and recycling. I encourage all to read as much as they can about the issue as well as watch recordings of Select Board meetings on the proposal.

Our current system has one company, Casella, collect trash and unsorted recycling, take the material to the Wells Transfer Station where it is placed in larger vehicles, and then transport the trash and recycling to a facility in Old Town.

The Select Board is asking voters to sign a 30-year contract with Ecomaine where the town of Kennebunk joins other towns in ownership of a trash and recycling facility in Portland. If the vote is in favor of this change, there is no plan for how trash will be collected or transported to this facility – it may be with Casella, but there are no plans in place, no estimates about cost for collection and transportation.

I am voting against this change for several reasons:

1.) Thirty years is an awfully long time, especially in the area of environmental regulations, and the uncertainty involved in being minority owner of a trash and recycling facility is too much risk for no clear reward.

2.) We are being asked to make one enormous change (where the trash and recycling ends up) without any plan about collection or transportation. My preference would be to see an alternative to our current system with costs, benefits, and drawbacks rather than dismantle our current system by changing one part with no clear idea for the other parts. We would be jumping without a net.

3.) The Select Board acknowledges that the Ecomaine will cost more in the short term than staying with our current system, and there is no assurance that the move to Ecomaine will save money in the long term.

Andrew Freda

Kennebunk

Support for updated

noise ordinance

I strongly urge Kennebunk residents to make a concerted effort to vote on Feb. 11 at a special town meeting in support of an updated noise ordinance allowing police to respond at an earlier time to noise complaints.

Excessive and persistent noise is an increasing problem that is not well contained by physical boundaries and significantly impacts quality of life. As I learned earlier this year, Kennebunk police and code enforcement have virtually no ability to enforce a reasonable noise level policy, even with well-documented evidence of excessive noise violations.

The current Kennebunk noise ordinance limits fall well below that of neighboring towns and has the absolute potential to reduce property values. The proposed change is a small, but needed step forward to give residents a little more say over how our lives will be affected by outside sources.

William Ferreira

Kennebunk